' = Internal dialogue

ยจ= Normal speech

* = Sounds / Etc

-Chapter 32 Start-

As morning arrived and birds were chirping in the few trees around us, people could be heard in the distance. The immigration has begun.

Judging by the number of people making their way over to the Park District, I had severely underestimated the number of people willing to move from Stormwind after hearing that Calia Menethil was still alive.

Turned out that boosted the numbers... quite a bit, to the point I became uncertain we could take them all in. This was in a matter of hours after the humans within Stormwind had caught wind of that information of a new city that was willing to bring them all the way to the location by portal travel.

While I was looking towards the hordes of people making their way into the district, Valeera was waking up with a yawn, "Good morni-" Then her eyes opened wide when she noticed the number of people in the distance making their way towards us.

Many guards followed them, trying to keep it peaceful and make people feel safer. This had two different results. Many people became nervous surrounded by the city guards, and some felt suspicious.

Though the man leading them almost shone yellow in the distance as his gold-covered plate armor with lion pauldrons was even more serious than yesterday, it was as if he expected something to go wrong.

"Valeera, can you stay hidden for the time being? I suspect something is going on or will happen very soon." I whispered.

She nodded, then I levitated myself down to the ground and showed myself to the guards at the front. Marshal Windsor noticed me while I descended and started making his way towards me.

The bulky Marshal came toward me with a severe expression on his face while a few guards were tailing behind him.

Just as I landed on the ground, several people noticed me and gasped at the casual use of magic. The warriors approaching me flinched slightly, but the Marshal continued as he expected, then stopped before me.

"Well, met Medan, I have some grave news. After we informed the king of the plan to immigrate most of our immigrants from Lordaeron, he was initially supportive when we presented him with the letter you gave us as proof. However, his... his latest attempts in romance denied the evidence as forgery, but under Regent Fordragon and my insistence, he dismissed the accusation."

He looked slightly angry before he continued.

"After the talk with the king, apparently, the rebels heard rumors this morning about mass immigration going to richer lands. Even if it was bogus, it's still an attractive target; therefore, I brought several of my trusted sergeants to assist if there were any... inconveniences." As he said all this, his eyes were checking out the nearby areas to see if something were out of place.

"There should be no need to worry, though it's quite... disturbing that the king's... love interest seems to know how to identify letters better than experienced veterans, I wonder? Who is this woman, if I may ask?" After I asked him, he stopped looking around and replied, "Lady Katrana Prestor, I honestly feel that the woman is... very dangerous. I trust my instincts, considering it has saved me numerous times."

I nodded and whistled toward the ceiling I jumped down from as a shadow appeared right beside me and became visible, all this almost in an instant, making the guards unsheathe their weapons, and Marshal Windsor looked with wide eyes at Valeera as he mumbled, "Damn, that elf is sneakier than the SI:7..."

Then I asked Valeera, "Do you mind checking around the area to see if anything suspicious is going on?"

She just looked at me for a moment before she said, "Who is going to watch your back while I'm gone?"

"That won't be a problem, young miss. We won't let anything happen." Windsor said. Valeera just looked at the man like he was the most stupid being she's ever laid her eyes on but shook her head and vanished from sight as she made her way toward the alley.

After a momentary silence, which was soon interrupted by children who looked awestruck at the spot Valeera disappeared from after they had started talking excitedly about how cool it looked.

Marshal Windsor just looked at me and said, "That lass didn't believe me, did she?" I just shook my head as we started walking toward the remnants of Lordaerons people who were all amassing and now waiting in the area, looking slightly nervous at the situation.

While scanning the masses, I counted the current people who were making their way into the district, and the numbers would become a real problem soon enough. I just hoped that we had enough housing and area. Worst case scenario, I could ask the dwarves if they had some space or try to make something temporary down at the beach, though they would probably be terrified out of their wits if they saw the growing hydras...

I thought the first wave of people was done, but no, I had first estimated around twenty thousand or so, but we were closing in on fifty thousand, and this was only the first wave.

And from what Marshal Windsor told me, we still had around three more waves of people heading in this direction over the following hours. I sighed, which made the Marshal look at me with a slightly tired smirk, "Didn't expect these numbers, did you? Well, I can't blame you, nor did we at first. It turns out there are many from the city who want to join Lordaeron's immigrants towards the brighter side of the fence, even while they have no proof. I'm sad to see our people so desperate. But I would have done the same if put in their shoes." He told me with a sigh of his own.

"When did the situation become so bad? I visited the Trade district yesterday, and what I saw was horrible, and situations like these don't just appear out of nowhere." I said, fully aware of who was indeed at fault for the devastation in Stormwind but not fully trusting the Marshal beside me with the information yet.

The Marshal looked at me with a pondering look on his face for a moment but shook his head, "I have my suspicions, but I cannot say more." He said sternly.

For a moment, I felt mana surging from a distance, probing and trying to make its way through my orb of deception. Still, it was stopped instantly by a figurative wall of magic that struck back, which provoked a grimace of pain from the one who had tried to get past the item and my combined magic defenses.

"Oh, who is the woman standing over there looking at us like we owe her something?" I said and looked toward a red and purple-robed woman with raven black hair with a sharp mischievous smile across her face, almost like a mask.

Onyxia, aka Lady Katrana Prestor, has made her appearance. She was not looking happy, not in the slightest, but all things considered, she couldn't come over towards me and accuse me of defending myself against her attempt to remove an illusion she could obviously sense when considering she herself was wearing a similar illusion.

This probably made her suspicious of me being sent from another Dragonflight, resulting in her earlier probe. This also made her look much more wary than a moment before.

The Marshal turned toward where I was looking and grimaced but swiftly hid the gesture as Lady Prestor approached us with six huge black knights following her in a circle.

The black armored knights following her walked as if they were led around by a puppeteer, precisely following the same pace surrounding their master. I soon understood why, though. The 'Human' Knights were not human at all. They were Black dragon spawns in disguise through a strong illusion.

Windsor bowed to the illusioned Onyxia, "My apologies, Lady Prestor, but I had no idea you would make your way here after the meeting. As you can see, we are making sure that the travelers from Lordaeron are not disturbing the peace. The Marshal said with a fake tone of sincerity, no doubt not looking eye to eye with the woman, and from his previous statement, she had obviously indicated that the immigrants from Lordaeron were disturbing the peace of the city, which the Marshal looked to disagree with vehemently.

"Ah, I am not here to inspect how you do your duties, Marshal. I am here because I am curious about the traveler you spoke of, which of whom brought the letter from Menethil royalty. I simply cannot grasp the audacity that the last remaining Menethil heir has, making a new city shortly after her brother ruined a city housing millions of her own people. Or people are flocking towards a sinking ship instead of staying in our prosperous city."

I just smiled while looking at the Black Dragoness before me and said, "Well, she isn't the one who has made the city. I am, though I must ask, what standing do you have to criticize Calia? Did your father not perish or disappear recently? Leaving you with... what exactly? The Altarac highlands are uninhabitable with the scourge on the loose, and I have not heard of you defending your homeland while the undead were ravaging it?"

Marshal Windsor stiffened at the realization of who I was. He had to keep his facial gestures to not break out in a wide grin as I talked to Lady Prestor, while the dragon herself had no outer reaction towards the claims as she only smiled, though her smile was now more visibly hostile and fake.

"I apologize for my assumption. I am just simply worried that there is another city taking in the poor people from Lordaeron, especially so after that hateful heir to the throne murdered his own father and hearing that the sister of such a man managed to establish a foothold of her own, what if she decided to do the same as her brother?"

Onyxia, of course, tried to deflect what I said by turning the conversation around, or at least trying to.

"Calia Menethil is not a person to judge based on your assumptions. Do you by any chance have anything against the line of succession of Lordaeron?" I asked casually.

"Ah no, not at all. I was only trying to be cautious, is all." She said as she had to calm one of her black armored guards with a wave of her hand.

Her guards were visibly seething at me from her side while listening to the conversation, almost to the point of them attacking. After hearing what I had told their queen, they were undoubtingly boiling with rage.

Onyxia looked like she didn't care in the least, but she had briefly given the one close to attacking a glance promising pain. This was most likely due to her not wanting to blow her cover in front of the Marshal.

When the Marshal in question finally realized we all just stood there awkwardly, he coughed into his hand and said, "Lady Prestor, if you don't have more business here, I would appreciate it if you could let me and Lord Medan here deal with the coming masses, I presume he needs to prepare to make the portals."

Lady Prestor just looked at him momentarily before she turned toward me with a pretentious smile, "Lord Medan, I would love to have a chat with you whenever you are available, hearing of your city and how you managed to make something akin to it in the brief time since Lordaeron's fall intrigues me, I hope you are willing to entertain me with this?" She said softly in an authoritative tone, almost as if she was daring me to say no directly.

I shrug, "Maybe, it depends on how much I have to deal with these coming hours, I have a busy schedule, but I will tell someone in the keep if I get the time." I told her with a wave as I turned around toward where I wanted to make the portals.

My uncaring attitude towards her request obviously lit some anger in the dragon, I could feel her trying to rein in her anger behind me, but one of her guards did not have the same control over his emotions and unsheathed his dark two-handed sword and rushed toward me, what happened next was too fast for anyone except Windsor and Onyxia to notice.

In that instant, I had met the dark armored guard's weapon head-on with a hand imbued with a dark purple flame. The small layer of concentrated fire was almost like a thin membrane, as tight fitting as a glove, and did not ruin my armored hands at all because I could instinctively control what it would burn.

The moment I touched his weapon, it evaporated into thin air along with his hands up to the wrist, effectively reducing the guard's posture to absolutely nothing; as I kicked his knee with some force to the side, a sickening crack was heard, and then a whimper shortly after as he fell to his knees.

Both Marshal Windsor and Lady Prestor stood rooted in place for a moment until I broke the tense atmosphere, "You should keep a tighter leash on your personal guard, my lady. If not, you might have problems in the future if they lash out at everything they take personally." I said with a wide smile as I put out the thin fire covering my hand, as it disappeared in a puff of smoke.

The so-called Lady Prestor briefly gnashed her teeth until she regained her aloof attitude and smile while Marshal Windsor stared. At the same time, he was in a combat stance momentarily until he too relaxed and sighed, then turned towards the guard, whimpering while looking at his now non-existent hands and his knee bending in the opposite direction. The dragon spawn was stunned into silence.

'That's some hefty Illusion, or should I call it some minor shapeshifting ability?' I thought.

Focusing briefly on the downed guard, and could see his complete form: a five-meter-tall dragon spawn with four legs and two arms with the hands gone from the wrist down, his entire hind leg twisted all the way around.

'I have to admit that looks quite painful. Oh well. Shouldn't have acted like a dumbass in the first place.'

The rest of her personal guards were staring at their downed kin with a look of contempt but soon turned back and looked at me much more wary than before. Two went to support him and started to lift him up from both sides after Onyxia had motioned for them that they were leaving.

"Well, I am deeply sorry for my guard's actions. It will not happen again.

I will retreat back to my lodgings. Until then, have a pleasant evening, gentlemen." She replied with a slight bow and gritted teeth, turned around, and left with her guards carrying the wounded guard away.

"That was... intense. What kind of mage are you exactly?" The Marshal asked after watching Lady Prestor and her guards move away while the civilians around made way for them through the masses.

"I'm not really a mage..." I answered somewhat honestly while watching the Black Dragoness leave the premises. I had expected her to lash out and perhaps try to cause some casualties after me provoking her continuously, but luckily that wasn't the case.

Honestly, I couldn't help myself from doing what I was doing. Something within me craved to fight with the Dragoness, to the point I wanted her to lash out and perhaps initiate the fight out of spite, which was honestly beyond stupid in hindsight.

Our encounter could have caused numerous casualties even before I could make her move out of Stormwind, and that is only one of the things that would have gone wrong.

I'd even have the king himself trying to complicate things, seemingly under the thumb of Onyxia. It would undoubtingly put him in denial after seeing she was a black dragon. Knowing the man as I do, it would turn out for a manhunt because it would seemingly be entirely my fault no matter what, even if his lover was a cold-blooded reptile hell-bent on his kingdom's destruction.

I am shook out of my thoughts as Marshal Windsor coughs into his hand and points toward a few tents erected at the spot where I assumed the portals would be summoned.

And I whistled to get Valeera's attention again if she was nearby, and it turned out she was. I told her I would return to Azshara for the night and perhaps be there for a day or two and gave her the option to do as she wanted.

"I'll stay here then. I can talk with Anduin and look around the city". She replied.

After thanking the Marshal, he continued his duties while watching over the masses. I opened my one and only portal toward the western part of our city in Azshara, where I could now see through the purple shine several mages standing ready.

I walked through the portal of mine and was greeted by Jaina and Calia with several dozen mages around them, even some of the hedge mages I had been chatting with these previous weeks who were gladly willing to help out here.

Jaina came toward me with a smile, "How did it go?" She asked as Calia was making her way towards me as well.

"Well, we returned the prince just as we found him and almost started a fight with the Lady Prestor shortly after she approached me..." I whispered to Jaina as I could see her smile disappear and be replaced with a frown.

"You did what?!" Calia, who just came near enough to hear, shouted until she calmed herself after gaining a few curious glances from the mages.

"Why would you do something like that now out of all times you could provoke a dangerous woman like that? Do you know what the consequences would have been?" Calia said with an unnerving calmness I had never seen from her before.

Jaina backed away slightly when she noticed Calia's calm tone, I felt this was the wrong time for this discussion, so I interrupted her by raising my hand and saying, "We can talk about this later. We have a situation going on right now. The numbers coming this way are well above our own.

Some might require healing and food whenever they get through. Quite a few have been recently released from the local prisons, even some from the stockades themselves, so we need to prepare for that."

Calia visibly calmed down as she closed her eyes and released a deep breath, "I will deal with the healing regarding the injured and try to get enough housing for most of the new arrivals. The tauren has been weaving tents for this occasion as well. With their techniques, I am sure we can figure out a way to have them have a roof over their heads while we make the rest of the housing."

Calia then waved towards a young high elf child wearing Belmont's known black cloak and sent the robed child to inform Belmont himself with the information that we needed to set up more housing all across the city.

When she was finally done relaying information to the child, she turned back to me with a severe look and said, "I will back down for now; meanwhile, I trust your ability to deal with damage control. I'd rather not let it get to that in the first place regarding the very people you are making your own."

Jaina then came to my side as Calia left towards a makeshift sickbay which was getting ready to receive the injured from the other side of the portal, and said, "I think you pissed her off. I haven't seen her that angry since she told me her father had engaged her to some Alterac noble."

I sighed, "I don't blame her. It was also a stupid thing to do at the worst possible timing." I said, then turned toward Jaina.

"So, ready for some chaos? We still need to make the portals I said and pointed toward the purple gateway where I just came from.

Jaina smiled wryly, "After this, I will reserve your pool. I had to stay up until now just to prepare for this after you dropped that bomb in our lap last night." Jaina explained as I could now clearly see dark bags under her eyes.

I laugh briefly, "Sure thing, that's a low price to pay for treating you and your mages like mana-batteries for an entire day." I told her after I started making myself scarce and going back through the portal.

When I am through the portal again, I gaze at the unending masses of people who are nervous but very hopeful for a fresh start.

'This is going to be a long day...'

-Chapter 32 End-